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Becoming an Entrepreneur: Michelle Nyamushanya MBA '11

As senior business systems analyst for National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match, Michelle Nyamushanya MBA ’11 evaluates proposals for improving the organization’s processes around marrow donor recruitment and patient transplants while ensuring alignment to the organization’s strategy.

“We all have a role to fill in this world,” said Nyamushanya, a Zimbabwe native driven by compassion and the desire to make a difference.

Nyamushanya further fulfills her purpose by serving on the board of Friends of Africa Education. She also recently helped a Twin Cities start-up that empowers individuals to excel with the creation and execution of its mission, vision, and strategic objectives.

In time, she hopes to start a foundation to help underprivileged children and own a business in Zimbabwe. “Seeing my parents’ businesses has inspired me,” she said of her parents' drivers’ education, retail, and auto repair businesses.

She continues to survey the U.S. market for successful business concepts that may be sustainable in Zimbabwe. Only after remotely establishing a business, and honing her business skills, does she hope to return to the country she left in 2004.

“I didn’t want to work in laboratory science, but wanted to leverage my degree for something different,” she said. “I decided to pursue an MBA with hope of becoming an entrepreneur. I wanted to know how great businesses run and are sustained. I wanted to expand my skills so I could be flexible in my career.”

Be the Match, Friends of Africa Education, and her parents’ businesses are benefiting from the skills she has gained. Further down the line, she will put them to practice to foster her own entrepreneurial dream.